{"product_id":"the-children-a-novel-isbn-9780063487437","title":"The Children: A Novel","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e“An extraordinary book. It’s a page-turner, full of mystery, but that’s the least of it. The language is dusted with magic. \u003ci\u003eThe Children \u003c\/i\u003ereminded me of Ray Bradbury at his best.” —Stephen King\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe haunting new novel from \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author Melissa Albert, in which the estranged adult children of a legendary author, written into their dead mother’s beloved fantasy series, must contend with the vine-like creep of legacy, memory, and magic.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGuinevere Sharpe has two childhoods.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn one, she and her brother, Ennis, live in the wooded shadow of their family's isolated Vermont farmhouse; in the other, the pages of their mother’s world-famous Ninth City books, where their magical adventures have made them household names. In reality, Guinevere's childhood isn't the enchanted idyll her mother’s readers imagine: she and Ennis are growing up near-feral, unwashed and underfed, escaping each day to the wild woods they’ve made their playland. As Edith Sharpe’s books explode into epic popularity, the threats of a rural childhood give way to the escalating perils of fame—until the night it all goes up in flames, leaving Edith’s series unfinished and her children the sole survivors.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNow an adult coasting on her mother's name, Guinevere is mid-promotion for a ghostwritten memoir when her estranged brother, an artist who has until now spurned his family's legacy, announces an upcoming installation titled, simply, \u003ci\u003eMother\u003c\/i\u003e. As rumors swirl around a death connected to his last show, unsettling recollections from Guinevere’s childhood begin to surface. Her public facade starts to crack, forcing her to confront the questions she's spent the last twenty years running from: What really happened the night of the fire? And what dark history lies behind their mother’s fantasy world?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Children\u003c\/i\u003e is wise to the mythic weight childhood memories gather over time, and the way our most beloved stories grow up with us. It's for anyone who's ever revisited an old favorite and found its pages cast in a darker light, the line separating magic from reality blurring as we discover the books that once comforted us carry shadows of their own.\u003c\/p\u003e | \u003cp\u003e“An extraordinary book. It’s a page-turner, full of mystery, but that’s the least of it. The language is dusted with magic. \u003ci\u003eThe Children \u003c\/i\u003ereminded me of Ray Bradbury at his best.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eStephen King\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“I don't know how, but Melissa Albert has taken my most private nightmares and desires and published them as a dark fairy tale. \u003ci\u003eThe Children\u003c\/i\u003e is a poison apple of a book: glossy, sweet, and absolutely terrifying. I don't think I'll ever get it out of my bloodstream.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eAlix E. Harrow, New York Times bestselling author of The Everlasting\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Evocative, arresting, genre-defying, and sublime. \u003ci\u003eThe Children\u003c\/i\u003e altered my emotional state and haunted my every thought. Melissa Albert's adult debut is not to be missed, particularly by those who love complex family dynamics, doors that lead to both fantasy and horror, and stories that are not what they seem.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eOlivie Blake, New York Times bestselling author of The Atlas Six\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Haunting, dreamlike, and emotionally fearless, \u003ci\u003eThe Children\u003c\/i\u003e is a reckoning. A book about memory, legacy, and the stories we tell ourselves to survive. \u003ci\u003eThe Children\u003c\/i\u003e proves once again that Melissa Albert is one of the most singular voices writing today. Simply put: I loved it.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eShea Ernshaw, #1 New York Times bestselling author of A History of Wild Places\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“I might end up using all the adjectives to describe this sharp, lyrical, nuanced riff on family dysfunction and the costs of devoting oneself to art. \u003ci\u003eThe Children\u003c\/i\u003e is a joyously grim, open-eyed, adult fairy tale with the messiest of morals (and I mean that as the highest possible praise), and I had so much damned fun reading it.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePaul Tremblay, New York Times bestselling author of Horror Movie and A Head Full of Ghosts\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Melissa Albert has done it again with this eerily beautiful adult debut. Twisty and strange in all the best ways, and rendered in Albert's characteristic dreamlike prose, \u003cem\u003eThe Children\u003c\/em\u003e is exactly the grown-up fairytale I've been looking for. I loved Guin and her complicated relationships, as well as the deft interweaving of memories, stories, and reality—and the many places where they blur.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eHeather Fawcett, New York Times bestselling author of the Emily Wilde Series\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Profound, beguiling, and terrifying, Melissa Albert’s first novel for adults is dangerous witchcraft of the highest order—an insidious and masterfully cast spell of a book about the stories we tell ourselves and each other, childhood’s end, and the way that the sharp edges of creative lives draw so much blood. \u003cem\u003eThe Children\u003c\/em\u003e is gorgeous and dreadful, I devoured it.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eMona Awad, bestselling author of Bunny\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Full of ornate prose, Albert’s speculative-fiction crossover spans fantasy, gothic, supernatural horror, and mystery. Focusing on an eccentric family, a complicated legacy, and the forces behind their art and challenging lives, Albert creates strong characters with defined personalities and heartbreaking experiences. . . Albert’s adult debut is an atmospheric gothic fantasy that sees an eccentric set of siblings reframing their troubled childhoods, the legacy of their mother’s book series, and their present lives. A great addition to every collection.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal (starred review)\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Albert seamlessly combines contemporary realism with fantasy, blurring the edges in a way that highlights that place where stories and real life convene, where magic contains truth, and the world as it appears is false, where just about anything can happen, particularly in the pages of a good book. It’s a captivating debut.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review (Notable Children’s Book) on The Hazel Wood\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“An original and imaginative fairy tale: thrilling, fascinating, and poignant in equal measure.”  - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eEntertainment Weekly (Best YA Book of the Year) on The Hazel Wood\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A darkly brilliant story of literary obsession, fairy-tale malignancy, and the measures a mother will take to spare her child.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Wall Street Journal (Best Children’s Book of the Year) on The Hazel Wood\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A charming, mysterious fable that unpacks what it means to be a story and whether we are all simply the stories we hear and tell.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eCassandra Clare, author of the Mortal Instruments series on The Night Country\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Lush and deliciously sinister fairytales to be consumed as greedily as Turkish delight or any fairy fruit. I loved these.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eKelly Link, author of Get in Trouble, on Tales from the Hinterland\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Every line reads like an incantation, and the result is a book pulsing with magic, one that holds the reader firmly under its spell.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eV. E. Schwab, author of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, on Our Crooked Hearts\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Albert’s fast-paced storytelling is both thrilling and accessible.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eSchool Library Journal (starred review) on Our Crooked Hearts\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Melissa Albert writes the kind of horror that doesn’t just make you check under your bed―it makes you check your own reflection in the mirror. A black-veined, spectral howl of a novel, \u003cem\u003eThe Bad Ones \u003c\/em\u003ecements Albert as the contemporary queen of suburban fantasy.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eAva Reid, author of A Study in Drowning\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Melissa Albert weaves a tight mystery that takes on a different shape each time you turn it over in your hands. It’s an eerie ode to girlhood, suburban legends and that one corner of the room you never want to visit in the dark.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNPR on The Bad Ones\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"William Morrow","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48252269265125,"sku":"NP9780063487437","price":32.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780063487437.jpg?v=1768314603","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/the-children-a-novel-isbn-9780063487437","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}